MISTAKES TO AVOID ON YOUR INVITATION ENVELOPES
- Krystal Gardenia
- Sep 20
- 3 min read
Whether it’s your save-the-dates or formal invitations, there are definitely some unspoken rules to follow when it comes to dealing with the post office.
Make sure your envelopes and addresses are in very high contrast colors. If the color of your address font blends in too closely with the envelope background, it won’t be read properly by the machine which can cause them to be "lost" in the post office void with no readable return address.
Your envelopes should be fully flat so that they can be fed through the sorting machine at the post office which is basically like squeezing an envelope between two rolling pins. This means, no trinkets inside the envelope, and no wax seals or filigree on the outside of the envelope. If this is something your heart is absolutely set on doing, you will need to bring all of your envelopes into the post office and pay for them to be manually sorted. Keep in mind that a large red stamp will end up on your envelopes because of this which may take away from your desired look.
Stick with the traditional address placement. The return address (aka, your address) should go in the top left corner on the front of the envelope. The recipient address (aka, the guest address) should go in the center on the front of the envelope. Changing this up risks your address being confused for the guest address and your invitations being sent right back to your house.
Always bring one of your completed envelopes into the post office and ask them to examine and weigh it to tell you exactly what postage you’ll need. Don’t just assume that stack of old stamps in your kitchen drawer will do the trick. Depending on how thick your paper is and how many cards you’ve included, you may need a different type or quantity of stamps. Figuring this out on your own is honestly confusing and not worth the risk, so it’s easier to just ask them to tell you directly.
Once you know what postage you need, I recommend ordering your stamps through the USPS website instead of getting them directly at the post office. This way, you can choose an aesthetic wedding themed stamp versus the random presidential or holiday stamps in stock at the post office. If you’re running behind and don’t have time to wait for the stamps to be delivered, just ask the post office attendant to show you the different stamp designs to choose from. They usually have some sort of flower design in stock. If you don't specify, they will automatically just give you the current seasonal design.
At the end of the day, always remember that your envelopes are being read and filtered by machines, not people. So even though your ultra creative envelope may make sense to you, it may not to a machine that probably hasn’t been updated in decades. Your main goal should be to avoid your envelopes being returned back to you. It will take a couple weeks for them to be returned which will put you behind schedule. The envelopes will also have a large return sticker on the front which means you can’t reuse them. So that‘s buying new envelopes, readdressing all of them, and buying more postage; putting you further behind schedule. Avoid the headache!
WRITTEN BY: Krystal Gardenia, Gardenia Weddings
